HYDERABAD: Fifteen-year-old young sailor
Padidala Vishwanath
from Hyderabad whose parents are daily wage labourers has been selected in junior boys yachting team to represent India at the ongoing
Optimist World Sailing Championship 2021
at Riva Del Garda in
Italy
. The competition, which began on June 30, will conclude on July 10.
“I myself was amazed at the passion he showed for sailing when he was studying in Class V. Initially when he got hurt while training, I took him to the hospital. Despite an injury on his leg, he did not mind it and chose not to even rest,” Vishwanath’s father Saidulu told TOI. Saidulu is a construction worker hailing from Suryapet. His wife is also a construction worker.
They came to the city 21 years ago. “After we put him in the social welfare residential school at Golconda, he was once taken to Hussainsagar where he saw yachting for the first time. By then, he also knew how two students from the social welfare institutions had climbed Mount Everest and he also was yearning to do something that excited him,” Saidulu recalled.
The boy was selected by
Navy Boys Sports Company
(NBSC) when he was 12. Viswanath now trains at NBSC, INS Mandovi, Goa. His prior achievements in international events include silver medal in the sub junior International Regatta 2017. Viswanath has been a part of the national squad in optimist class since then.
Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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